Senior School Improvement Advisor

Ref: RBK/15/2089
Hours: 36

Are you an experienced educational professional looking for an opportunity to use your skills to support and challenge schools to raise standards? If so Achieving for Children is keen to hear from you as we are currently recruiting to our highly skilled and well regarded team of school improvement professionals.

Achieving for Children (AfC) was launched on April 1, 2014 as a community interest company, jointly owned by Kingston and Richmond to provide children’s services within the two boroughs. This is a first nationally, putting us at the forefront of service re-design. Within AfC our aim is achieve excellence in everything we do by putting children and young people first in the design, delivery and evaluation of every service we provide, to ensure they are supported to live safe, happy, healthy and successful lives. This is an exciting time to join us.

The cornerstone of our approach to school improvement within AfC is our development of SPA[RK] – the School Performance Alliance for Richmond and Kingston. The posts advertised here represent a significant part of that development. School standards in Richmond and Kingston are very high and our expectations are higher still.

The major part of this role will be to act as a school improvement partner to a group of schools. Working closely with headteachers and senior leaders you will provide support and challenge to help schools to raise standards and improve provision. There may be opportunities for additional responsibilities for suitably experienced candidates.

To join our team you must:

• be committed to working in partnership with school leaders
• have experience of working with governors, headteachers and other senior leaders to shape school improvement and raise standards
• have good knowledge and understanding of strategies to promote enhanced school performance and evidence of impact
• be committed to inclusion
• be familiar with the Ofsted frameworks for the inspection of schools and local authority school improvement functions
• be proficient in the use and interpretation of Raiseonline and other datasets e.g. FFT, EPAS
• demonstrate excellent interpersonal, written and verbal communication skills
• be able to deliver clear messages about performance and standards
• be adaptable and open to fresh challenges
• be able to work independently while being an active participant within our team

You will have been a Headteacher or experienced Deputy in a school and/or you will have experience of a senior school improvement role in a local authority or similar setting. We would welcome applications from candidates with secondary, primary, special or cross-phase experience as we have a number of opportunities available.

We would prefer to make full time appointments but would consider offering part time posts and secondments for the right candidate.

Due to these posts having access to children and/or vulnerable adults, candidates will be required to undertake a Disclosure and Barring Service Check. The possession of a criminal record will not necessarily prevent an applicant from obtaining this post, as all cases are judged individually according to the nature of the role and information provided.

For an informal discussion about this opportunity please contact Graham Willett (Achieving for Children Director of Education Services) on 02085475287 or Rosemary Hafeez (Head of School Standards and Performance) on 02085475252.

Closing date: 23/03/2015